How often do you get your meters, clamp meters, multi meters, duspols, meggers, voltage detectors, etc tested against a known standard ?

In New Zealand for Low Voltage 240/415 Volts these are tested once a year, unless your meter gives suspect readings, or sustained damge, water etc, it will get retested sooner as long the user drops it off at our test lab.For HV work all equipment gets tested every half year.

For electrical leads, depending upon where they are used periods are 3, 6, 12 or 60 months. as per AS/NZS 3760;2001.

I'm just doing the 6, 12 monthly tests on multimeters from the line crews who are on a refresher course at the moment.

How 'bout never. I've had a pair of yellow Ideal "wiggies" for at least 10 years. The only thing that's gone wrong with them are the leads. They've since been replaced and the tester works as good now as they did when I bought them.

My multi-meter is less than a year old and doesn't get used very often. I also have a volt-tick and several plug-in GFCI testers and I usually lose those before they go bad.

I don't have a need for all the other fancy testers out there, like a Megger, yet.

Re: How often do you get your meters tested#7201511/14/0610:58 PM11/14/0610:58 PM

My neighbor gave me a UEI DL 250 he used in the HVAC biz. It was "rode hard and put away wet"(flaky switch, cracked display, case banged up). I called UEI and they had a deal where I sent it in for repair and I ended up with a new one for $40. It is a nice "clamp" with the usual stuff along with a capacitor tester and a diode/transistor tester.

Greg Fretwell

Re: How often do you get your meters tested#7201911/15/0607:23 PM11/15/0607:23 PM

As Bob says, for general testing high accuracy isn't all that necessary, and I certainly have a few multi-meters which have never been officially re-calibrated (although I've checked them against my bench meters from time to time).

However.....

Work conforming to British Standard 7671 (IEE Wiring Regulations), requires that certain tests be carried out with instruments which have a current calibration certificate. Those tests include insulation resistance, continuity (of earths & ring conductors), earth-loop impedance, and -- where applicable -- RCD (GFI) trip times/currents.

Calibration for BS7671 would normally be every year, or when anything happens to make one suspect the meter's reliability or accuracy -- overload, dropping from a great height, getting dowsed with water, attack by mutant zombies, etc.

Re: How often do you get your meters tested#7202011/16/0609:31 AM11/16/0609:31 AM

"How 'bout never. I've had a pair of yellow Ideal "wiggies" for at least 10 years. The only thing that's gone wrong with them are the leads. They've since been replaced and the tester works as good now as they did when I bought them."

Wiggies are not CAT III rated for use on permanantly installed equipment per IEC1010. You can use them for residential work, but not commercial.

MV/HV Testing Specialist, "BKRMAN"

Re: How often do you get your meters tested#7202111/16/0611:59 AM11/16/0611:59 AM

On instrumentation circuits for process control, my company's written policy calls for the test instruments to be calibrated prior to and just after tests and set-point adjustments made during plant commissioning. The calibration is to be a certified calibration traceable to the National Institute of Standard and Testing (NIST). That said, in practice, I doubt the instruments are calibrated more than once a year if they are used properly and handled carefully.

Re: How often do you get your meters tested#7202211/16/0607:14 PM11/16/0607:14 PM